tl;dr for August 7th
- Casting news: Tony winner and nine time nominee Rosemary Harris will replace Dame Diana Rigg in Critic's Pick! "My Fair Lady" (read my review); Hugh Dancy and Megalyn Echikunwoke are joining Stockard Channing for Roundabout's fall production of "Apologia"; and most of the original off-Broadway cast of Jocelyn Bioh's sold-out hit play "School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play" will return for an encore run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre this fall; be sure to get tickets for this one (read my review)
- Ticket news: Manhattan Theatre Club has increased its "30 Under 30" program to now include patrons up to age 35! Sign up for free to access $30 tickets to all their productions. Meanwhile, TKTS is piloting a new listing feature at their Lincoln Center booth by noting prices, instead of percentage discounts, on the boards.
- Free stuff: Critic's Pick! "Mean Girls" (read my review) will offer a free fan performance in October (enter the lottery here); Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize winning play "Sweat" will offer free performances in an 18 city tour of the Midwest under the Public Theater's Mobile Unit initiative (schedule here); and, of course, be sure to check out the Public Theater's free Shakespeare in the Park production of Critic's Pick! "Twelfth Night" (read my review)
- Social media sensation "Be More Chill", which opens Off-Broadway on Thursday, has sold out its limited run; perhaps an open-ended commercial Off-Broadway or Broadway engagement is in the future?
- Michael Riedel reports that "Moulin Rouge! The Musical", currently in Boston, is eyeing the Al Hirschfeld Theatre for a summer 2019 Broadway bow, and Tommy Tune is thinking directing and choreographing a revival of "Grand Hotel" (read my review of the recent City Center production)
- Tony winner Ruthie Ann Miles has returned to the stage in the London production of "The King and I", following the tragic loss of her unborn child and 4-year-old daughter in a Park Slope traffic accident last fall
- RIP: long-time stage actor Charlotte Rae, best known for her TV roles on "The Facts of Life" and "Diff'rent Strokes", is dead at 92
